Terps Claim Maryland Invitational Crown

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – The Maryland volleyball team showed tremendous effort offensively and defensively to win the Maryland Invitational Saturday night at Comcast Pavilion with a 3-0 defeat of Penn.

Maryland (5-1) went undefeated in three matches at the tournament defeating UMKC on Friday night, and LIU Brooklyn and Penn on Saturday.

Adreené Elliott, Mary Cushman and Sarah Harper were named to the All-Tournament team with Harper claiming MVP honors.

The Terps took the opening set against the Quakers, 25-17. Elliott started the set off with a huge kill, and Maryland would never lose that lead. Elliott posted five kills and Ashleigh Crutcher added four in the frame.

Maryland fell to Penn in the second set, but came back strong following the intermission and claimed a 25-15 victory in the third set. During the frame, Cushman recorded her 1,000-career kill for the Terps.

Maryland dominated the fourth set defeating the Quakers 25-11. Offensively, Elliott had a match-high 15 kills. Crutcher added 13 and Cushman added 12. On the defensive side, Maryland had 13 blocks to Penn’s one. Ashlyn MacGregor recorded the only solo block of the match.

The Terps were coming off a win against LIU Brooklyn earlier in the day. During that match, Maryland swept the Blackbirds in three sets.

The Terps recorded 14 total team blocks in the match. The Terps tallied more blocks in each set individually than the Blackbirds did in the entire match (3). Emily Fraik posted a match-high two blocks and added four assisted blocks. MacGregor led the match in assisted blocks with eight.

Offensively, Elliott led the way with 12 kills, while Crutcher added eight.

Maryland returns to action on Friday on the Terps host their second invitational and welcome George Mason, New Hampshire and Villanova to Comcast Pavilion. Maryland opens the tournament against New Hampshire at 7:30 p.m.